Why Signal

The problem

The internet's memory is flexible. Posts get edited, predictions get quietly rewritten when they miss, and claims disappear when they become inconvenient. Saying something costs nothing, so it is hard to tell a real position from a confident guess, or someone with a record from someone who is loud about the last thing they got right.

What Signal does

A signal is a claim with three properties no ordinary post has:

• It can't be changed. It is sealed and fingerprinted when you lock it. When it opens, anyone can check it is word for word what was sealed.

• It cost you something. You burn DGB to lock it, in public, on the DigiByte chain.

• It gets judged. When it opens, readers mark it a true signal, a false signal or unclear, and for a signal posted under your Digi-ID the result shows on your author page.

Each one helps on its own. Together they make a claim that is timestamped, backed by real cost, opens on schedule and is judged on what it actually said.

Examples

• A forecast

  Put a prediction on record

  An analyst calls a specific outcome for next quarter, burns 50 DGB and sets it to open in 90 days. On day 90 it opens by itself and readers judge it. A run of these becomes a track record nobody can trim after the fact.

• A promise

  Make a public commitment with something at stake

  A team commits to shipping a feature by a date and burns 100 DGB on it. On the deadline the promise opens and anyone can judge whether they delivered.

• An embargo

  Seal a story until it can be told

  A journalist finishes a sensitive story but can’t publish yet. They seal it to open in 30 days. When it opens it is exactly what was sealed, and the burn on the DigiByte chain shows when it was written.

• Priority

  Prove you had it first

  A researcher seals a draft of an idea to open in six months. When the work comes out, anyone can check that the idea was written down before competing publications.

Who it's for

• Analysts and forecasters who want a track record they can prove
• Founders and teams making public commitments they want taken seriously
• Journalists with stories that can't be published yet
• Researchers who want to show when they had an idea
• Anyone who thinks what people say online should be harder to take back

What it isn't

• A place for secrets. Every signal opens on its date and is public from then on.
• Refundable. Burned DGB is destroyed for good, and the 10% pool donation is a donation.
• Editable. Once a signal is locked, neither you nor Signal can change what it says.

How it works

1. Sign in with Digi-ID: scan a QR code with your DigiByte wallet. There is no password and no email to give.
2. Write your signal. It is encrypted in your browser before anything leaves your device.
3. Choose when it opens, how much DGB to burn, and whether it shows your Digi-ID or stays anonymous.
4. Send the DGB from any DigiByte wallet in one transaction: 90% to the burn address, where it is destroyed, and 10% to the DigiAsset pool as a donation. Paste the transaction id and confirm with your Digi-ID that it is yours. The signal locks once the DigiByte chain confirms the burn.
5. Until it opens, the feed shows that the signal exists and what it cost, but not what it says.
6. On the date you chose, the key that opens it is released by a public timelock and anyone can check the text is unchanged. Then readers judge it a true signal, a false signal or unclear.

What is stored and why is in the privacy policy; the rules are in the terms.